


vienna

by skyways_are_highways



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Azula is a victim, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, We Die Like Men, also this ended up so much longer than i thought it would and im sorry, azula deserves a redemption arc gang rise up, i havent read the comics, i just have feelings ok they are CHILDREN, if i wrote this to make myself feel better about other things then thats my business, this is so self indulgent, what do you say to your sister who tried and almost succeeded to kill you, zuko and azula have a hard convo, zuko sure doesn't know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25749874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyways_are_highways/pseuds/skyways_are_highways
Summary: But you know that when the truth is toldThat you can get what you want or you could just get oldYou're gonna kick off before you evenGet halfway through____Three years and two months after the war ends, Azula disappears from her facility.(lyrics + title from Vienna by Billy Joel)
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Referenced), Sokka/Zuko (Referenced)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 88





	vienna

**Author's Note:**

> you don't have to listen to vienna at all for this fic to make sense but like the song is great so you should anyway
> 
> also ngl guys i kinda lost the plot with this one but like it is what it is

Firelord Zuko got the letter earlier that morning. Princess Azula had disappeared from her facility. The meeting he'd been in was postponed as most of the guards were out hunting for his sister. There were countless 'theories' as to why she chose now to break out, but none of the staff had all the information. 

Zuko knew something the rest of the palace staff didn't. The date was significant. Two months after the war ended, Ozai died alone in his cell. He had refused to eat for weeks and weeks until finally, it got the better of him. There hadn't been a funeral.

Zuko went to visit Azula the next day. She didn't speak to him. 

Ozai's rooms in the palace had been boarded up as soon as Zuko took over. They were too big and ornate, and they reminded Zuko of his childhood in a way that made his skin crawl. 

The palace felt empty. Most of the guards were in every corner of Caldera, searching for the missing princess, and the staff had made themselves scarce. Zuko couldn't blame them. He'd been acting off all day, even before the note from Azula's facility had arrived.

He'd made his way to the massive door leading to Ozai's room. He didn't go in often, and when he did, it was because he was thinking of his mother. Zuko just wanted to pretend he was a kid again, hiding behind his mother's robes, poking fun at his sister. The room was massive and cold, with a much too large four-poster bed against the back wall. Any and every surface was coated in a layer of dust. None of the candles on the wall had been replaced in years, so the whole place was dark. 

There was a massive portrait of the royal family hanging on one wall. Zuko couldn't have been older than eight, and Azula looked six. He hardly recognized himself without the scar. His mother was smiling, though it looked a little sad. Azula was kneeling in front of her, hands in her lap. Ozai had one hand gripped firmly on younger Zuko's shoulder. He had the same determined expression he was wearing during the Agni Kai. 

He shook an imaginary hand off his shoulder without thinking. Zuko glanced around the room again before sitting down at the end of the massive bed. There was an armoire in what felt like every corner. The gold detailing was tarnished and some of the doors sagged.

Zuko saw her tucked between one of the armoires and the wall. 

Azula was hugging her knees, her forehead resting against them. She used to hide there as a child, too, before things turned for the worse. Before their mother left. Before Ozai pitted them against each other. Just,  _ before _ . 

He looked at the window across the room. It was open slightly, and the boards covering it had a hole blasted through them. 

He saw her tense up but didn't move from her spot. Zuko felt his breathing hitch as she slowly raised her head and looked at him, her face blank. There were tear tracks down her cheeks. 

"Everyone is looking for you," Zuko said. He hadn't spoken to her in months, let alone had a normal conversation. Azula talked and talked for the first months in her facility. Raving and ranting to anyone who would listen for a moment. After Ozai died, she'd gone silent. For two years, she refused to speak to anybody except for her caretakers. 

Zuko had visited, but the two hadn't  _ really  _ had a conversation since he left the Fire Nation to join the avatar. He wasn't sure what to say to her.

She scoffed, "I know."

Zuko knew he should probably call for the guards. He should probably send her back to her facility. He'd see her again in two weeks and they'd sit in silence as she stared out the window of her room. 

Zuko knew he should probably do a lot of things. But this was more words than Azula had spoken to him in years. She sounded different, she looked different, and, for all he knew, she  _ was  _ different.

And, the truth of it was, Zuko missed his little sister. 

"Why're you here?" He asked tentatively. 

She leaned her head against the wall, "Do you care?" 

Zuko winced before saying, "Yeah. I do." That clearly surprised her. She had been expecting some kind of Zuko-esque retort. 

"I'm trapped in there twenty-four hours a day, Zuzu," She deadpanned, sticking her legs out in front of her. Crammed between her father's dresser and the wall, Azula truly did look like a child. She leveled a glare that was probably meant to be withering at him, and it hit him how much time had passed.

"You're seventeen," He blurted out and immediately covered his mouth with his hand. 

Azula blinked at him slowly, "You're nineteen. That's how birthdays work, brother." 

He sighed and looked at the ceiling, "I know that! I just hadn't really realized it's been three years."

She grinned at him as if to say, ' _ Are you serious?'  _ and Zuko noticed how old she'd become. Though her face was sharper and more angled, Azula did look quite a bit like their mother.

"You can't even remember how old I am and they made you Firelord?" She said a little bitterly. 

That brought him back to the present.

"Sorry," Zuko said, unsure as to which part of her statement he was apologizing for, "You never really did tell me why you were here."

Azula looked over at the portrait across the room, "You said it yourself, Zuzu, it's been three years."

Oh. Zuko had nearly forgotten. Of course. That was why he even came up to Ozai's bedroom in the first place. His father had died three years ago to the day.  _ Her _ father had died three years ago to the day. 

"Did you know I was going to be up here?" He asked her. Zuko had never told Azula about his visits to their father's quarters. It was strange that she was here to meet him.

"Not everything is about you," she spat. Her eyes widened and she took a deep breath, "I mean, yes. Uncle had mentioned that you come every year. Though I'll admit, I expected you to be out looking for me."

"Everyone else is," He fell back onto the mattress, his legs still dangling over the edge, "I didn't realize Uncle had told you about that."

"Both of you seem to think that just because I never said anything back means I wasn't listening," she said. 

He paused. Azula was kind of right. After months and months met with silence, Zuko had stopped ever expecting her to say anything, let alone listen to what he had to say. He had started just telling her about anything he could think of to get her to respond. 

She hadn't reacted to  _ any  _ of it. Not when Zuko told her he was the Blue Spirit, not when he told her about Ba Sing Se, and not when he talked about the rest of Team Avatar. Azula  _ didn't even blink _ when Zuko told her Sokka had kissed him for the first time. 

"I was almost starting to think you couldn't hear me," Zuko said softly. He heard Azula get up from her place on the floor and felt the bed shift as she lay down next to him.

"What would you have wanted me to say? It was easier to just let you talk, after a while," She replied, "I wasn't even sure what to think about any of you after he died."

Zuko didn't have to ask who 'he' was. He knew what she meant. When Ozai died, all his friends told him that he didn't need to feel sad, that they understood. They'd nodded along when Zuko told them that he and Iroh weren't going to plan a funeral. Eventually, Aang put his hand on Zuko's shoulder and told him it was okay to mourn.

They may have been  _ understanding _ , but they didn't understand. Not really. Not Sokka or Katara, who had a father who loved them even with the absence of their mother. Not Aang, who may have lost his entire people but had never been hurt on purpose by any of them. And certainly not Toph, who was estranged from her parents but knew she could go back to them when she was ready, if ever. 

Zuko's father had hurt him. The reminder was seared onto his face for the entire world to see. His sister was the only one who truly understood. It showed in the way that he and Azula moved to protect the other, even when they were less than friends. The instinct had been pushed aside once Zuko was banished, but he had no doubt it wouldn't take much to throw him back into his old habits. 

"I don't know," he said so quietly it was almost a whisper, "I don't blame you, though."

Azula's breathing hitched, and Zuko was worried he'd ruined it. That whatever moment they were having was over, until she whispered back, "Blame me for what?"

"For any of it," He said. If you'd asked him the same question even a year ago, his answer would've been different. There was so much he had told himself was Azula's fault. As a kid, he'd resented her after their mother disappeared, even more so when she didn't seem bothered.

"For what it's worth," Azula let out a sharp exhale, almost a laugh, "I'm sorry. For most of it, anyway."

Zuko absentmindedly wiped at tears he hadn't noticed were there, "Me too. I never should've left you with him."

Azula  _ actually  _ laughed at that, "You say that like you could've convinced me to leave." 

"Yeah, okay. Fair point," Zuko laughed too, turning his head to look at her. 

They sat in silence for a bit. The two of them hadn't been siblings for a long time. First rivals, then flat out enemies, then rivals again, and then right back to trying to kill each other. 

"I kind of missed you," Zuko broke the quiet.

"Kind of?" Azula raised her eyebrow at him, "Don't tell me you weren't having the time of your life without me, Zuzu." 

He glared at her, but he had a small smile on his face, "You know what I mean. I didn't miss you trying to burn the other half of my face off, I'll be honest. But you're the only one who gets it, you know?" 

Zuko almost expected her to be mad at him for bringing the 'tried to kill each other' thing up after having an  _ actually  _ nice conversation, but Azula just grinned, "Yes, I do. You're the one person I know who's father also groomed them into a war machine." He never expected her to say it like that, but she was right. It had taken them both a long time to realize that.

"We never got to be kids," Zuko said, not really to anyone in particular, "Well, maybe except for that party on Ember Island." 

Azula rubbed her face with one hand, "Ember Island was a mess. I don't think normal kids set fire to people's homes."

Oh, God. Zuko hadn't even remembered that part. "The campfire too. Maybe Ember Island doesn't count." 

The campfire was the last time they had ever really talked. The two of them may have seen each other around the palace and played nice for their father, but they hadn't had a real conversation. 

"Did Mai and Ty Lee ever figure out those crushes they had on each other?" Azula asked abruptly.

Zuko looked at her, confused, "They didn't like each other then. Plus, Mai and I were still dating." 

"Oh, Zuzu, brother. Yes, they did. You couldn't tell?" She was grinning again, but it wasn't the grin Zuko was used to. For the longest time, her smile was a sinister, cold, thing that never meant anything good. Especially not for Zuko. But now she seemed actually happy.

"Guess not," Zuko said, "They are together now, though. They figured it out." 

Azula sighed contentedly, "Good. Otherwise, I would've had to play matchmaker again."

They sat there, watching the canopy of the bed flutter in the breeze from the window, the family portrait staring at them from behind. "Do you think he's proud of us?" Azula asked quietly.

"Do you want him to be?" Zuko replied, not looking away from the ceiling. 

"I did, but not anymore," Azula said, "What about Mom?" 

Zuko grabbed his hand in hers, "Yeah, I think she is." 

**Author's Note:**

> and then zuko didn't make her go back to the asylum and gave azula her own area in the palace so they could be brother and sister again. i don't make the rules.


End file.
